Depending on your sub floor, you could always screw/glue some 3/8 AC over it and then lay the laminate over the AC. This is a common practice. Transition strips between this area and other rooms would take up the differing floor heights.

If you decide to remove the old flooring, the difficult part for you wouldn’t be the removal, but the disposal. Removal is simple really. The hardest part is putting plastic up EVERYWHERE but the remediation area, and also taping the plastic. Then you have to dispose of the plastic as well as the material.

But, even if you did remove it yourself, from a regulatory perspective, it’s still there. Remediation is only “officially” recognized if it is removed by someone holding a fitness card. Oh, and if you ever sell the house, and you know it has asbestos flooring (or the appraiser), you may have no choice but to have it removed. It’s no different than if you have an underground fuel tank, you have to get soil samples tested and prove the tank isn’t / hasn’t leaked. If the samples show hydrocarbon levels, you get the joy of paying someone to remove the soil and dispose of it.

Depending on your sub floor, you could always screw/glue some 3/8 AC over it and then lay the laminate over the AC. This is a common practice. Transition strips between this area and other rooms would take up the differing floor heights.

If you decide to remove the old flooring, the difficult part for you wouldn’t be the removal, but the disposal. Removal is simple really. The hardest part is putting plastic up EVERYWHERE but the remediation area, and also taping the plastic. Then you have to dispose of the plastic as well as the material.

But, even if you did remove it yourself, from a regulatory perspective, it’s still there. Remediation is only “officially” recognized if it is removed by someone holding a fitness card. Oh, and if you ever sell the house, and you know it has asbestos flooring (or the appraiser), you may have no choice but to have it removed. It’s no different than if you have an underground fuel tank, you have to get soil samples tested and prove the tank isn’t / hasn’t leaked. If the samples show hydrocarbon levels, you get the joy of paying someone to remove the soil and dispose of it.

Yeah MARK! Don't laugh (or make me laugh) at my spike trap monkey bar set, or the slide of fire, or the fireman's pole that lack the clearance to get you down without a brush burn, when you have an old fuel tank under your house! Let's see you cross monkey bars over that!

(And yes, it was the slide from hell. I may have misjudged the angle while building, by 10-45 degrees, or so. Let's just say we had to re-engineer the slide after the party. I had forgot about that kid that basically got sky-kicked by the girl coming down at 98 mph. Fun day for all. All 33, or however many left that day.)

I'm no expert but when they removed asbestos from the basement of the building I work in, it was like a scene from a sci-fi movie. The hallway leading to the work area had a sealed tent where the workers entered, stripped down and entered a second tent which housed showers for the way out and that led into another tent where they put on their special suits. All of the outbound air went via giant tubes to a huge filtering unit that exhausted outside.

Scary stuff.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

The expert who gave us a learning session at our Health and Safety committee meeting before the cleanup told us that for the most part, asbestos is only dangerous when disturbed as it's rate of just 'breaking down' and going airborne is extremely slow. Normally when undisturbed, asbestos in a a wall or something is often safer just left there than removed.

That being said, the asbestos insulation on the pipes in the basement was much like your situation. It was exposed, breaking open and chunks could flop around. It's very brittle so this can create airborne particles. In fact, I can't offer an opinion on your basement but I'd feel more comfortable having an expert look at it, if you haven't already.

So no, I'd love to visit New Hampshire again but I'll be putting up a tent in your backyard.

_________________________
With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

As it now stands, it's just the occasional computer Geek down there for a night or two, and I have to believe all that deep coughing they do the week after is cleansing their system of anything bad.

Mark, be careful. I don't want to alarm you. There is a ton of asbestos litigation around here and I know several attorneys that do that kind of work, on both sides of the table. The particles can't be coughed up, that's the problem. The little glass like crystals cannot be removed from the complex web of the lungs, and result in mesothelioma (lung cancer). It is rampant around here as asbestos was a common product in the oil and gas manufacturing sector in the 50s - 80s. It's fine unbroken, but if your dealing with busted up stuff, seek help my friend. At least wrap it up so the particles can't escape if you are not going to remove it.Sincerely, Chicken Little

Mark one thing to think about is if your furnace is in the basement it may be drawing fibres into your ductwork and throughout your house. Since I don't know your setup it's had to tell. Had you had your home tested for asbestos fibres?Mel N.